A Civil Action

The most interesting thing about this legal drama is that it does not try to be a comfortable good-versus-evil film. It begins with something terrible —families convinced that contaminated water has made their children sick and killed them—, but very quickly shifts the focus toward a rather uncomfortable question: what happens when pain enters a law office and has to be translated into evidence, costs, strategy and money? That is where the film gains strength. It does not turn justice into a beautiful speech, but into an expensive, cold and exhausting mechanism, where being right is not always enough and where victims can end up becoming one more piece inside a machine nobody fully controls.John Travolta works well precisely because his character does not begin as a saint. Jan Schlichtmann is elegant, self-confident, vain and very aware of the financial value of every case. At first he seems almost more interested in calculating possibilities than in truly listening to the families. And that makes his evolution more interesting. He is not the pure lawyer who throws himself into saving the world from the first minute, but someone who gradually becomes trapped by a case he initially believes he can control. Little by little, what looked like a professional opportunity becomes an obsession, and what seemed like a profitable cause begins to devour everything: the money, the firm, his self-esteem and even the image he had of **** film also has a magnificent Robert Duvall. His defense attorney is dry, cunning, apparently modest and absolutely dangerous. He does not need to raise his voice or deliver big scenes to impose himself. Just watching him move through corridors, ask seemingly innocent questions or hide behind impeccable professional logic is enough to understand that the system also favors whoever knows how to wear you down. Duvall represents very well that part of the law that does not need to look evil in order to be devastating. He is not a cartoon villain; he is a man who knows the rules better than anyone and knows that, in court, truth can matter less than burden of proof, available money and the patience to wait.Steven Zaillian writes intelligently and directs with sobriety. Perhaps too much sobriety at times. You can feel that he is more interested in the erosion caused by the process than in a grand courtroom climax, and there is something honest about that, because real life rarely offers perfect speeches, definitive witnesses and clean justice in the final minute. But I also understand why anyone looking for a more vibrant legal drama might find it somewhat cold. The film avoids the easy blow, but sometimes it also avoids too much emotion. There are very good scenes, Conrad L. Hall’s elegant and somber cinematography, and a constant sense of defeat that slowly seeps in. Still, at times it feels as if the material was asking for an even more intense film.What I liked most is that it does not simplify. The families are right in their pain, but the system does not magically organize itself around that truth. The companies do not appear as monsters shouting in a room, but as structures capable of waiting, denying, delaying and protecting themselves. The victims’ lawyers also have interests, ego and fear of losing everything. And Schlichtmann himself, the closer he gets morally to the cause, the more he sinks professionally. That contradiction seems very powerful to me: perhaps becoming a better person does not save you, perhaps it even ruins you. But at least it forces you to look differently at what you used to merely **** the end, I am left with a respectable, sober and quite adult film. It is not perfect: it lacks a little cinematic nerve, perhaps a more memorable climax and a greater emotional closeness to the families at the origin of the case. But that dryness is also part of its value. It does not sell justice as a luminous victory, but as a dirty, extremely expensive and often unsatisfying battle. Based on real events, it speaks about contamination, corporate responsibility and human damage, but also about something sadder: how even just causes can get lost among bills, technicalities and insufficient settlements. And that is why it works. Because it does not leave you with the euphoria of having seen good triumph, but with the discomfort of understanding how much it costs even to try.

Duvall earned yet another Oscar nomination for his supporting turn in Steven Zaillian’s smart and absorbing courtroom drama. Based on a true story, "A Civil Action" revolves around a small-time injury lawyer (John Travolta) who takes on a case against two major companies accused of polluting a town’s water supply, leading to the deaths of several children. Duvall costars as the corporation’s slick and able attorney, whose eccentricities mask a brilliant legal mind.